June 2017 - Joan Vienot

Posted on 06/15/201704/03/2024 by Joan Vienot — Leave a comment

An Evolving Artist is a Perpetual Student

An evolving artist is a perpetual student, always searching for the best way to create a visual statement. I think that to just paint the same thing over and over is to stagnate. Some would argue with me, those who have a schtick, perhaps, a motif that sells. I would argue in return, that the artist who does that, may be selling, but is not evolving.

So I study. Every Wednesday morning will find me out painting with the Emerald Coast Plein Air Painters, a practice which immerses me in the creative, decision-making artistic process like none other.

Sometimes I feel “behind”, knowing that many of my peers have been actively producing art during the 35 years that I pursued a non-art career. So I study. I study great artists through their books and photos of the masters, I attend workshops by contemporary artists, and I study subjects by painting what I have photographed. Mostly I study on site, en plein air.

This week I studied the light on a barn at a state park, a feat of patience as the sun hid behind the clouds most of the morning, giving me mere glimpses of the structure in full light. I did not finish the painting, content with what I learned by studying only the lit side, the unlit side, and the shadow under the roof. Continue reading An Evolving Artist is a Perpetual Student

Posted on 06/13/201704/03/2024 by Joan Vienot — Leave a comment

Joan Vienot, Live Event Painter

Several years ago I was asked to paint the bride and groom’s First Dance at their wedding reception. That first request blossomed into more as word got out. I have dedicated a page on my website to Weddings & Live Event Painting.

Last fall I painted at a beautiful wedding which was held outdoors in front of a magnificent private mansion. The weather was gorgeous, the light exactly mirroring the day before when I had visited the site to work out the details with the wedding planner. I arrived about an hour early, so my painting was well underway by the time the first guests arrived. A trio played classical music behind me, to the accompaniment of the splashing sound of the beautiful marble fountain beside me, and pre-wedding cocktails encouraged the convivial atmosphere. Guests looked over my shoulder as I continued to structure the mansion, cheating the color towards the warm glow I knew would be present at the moment I was asked to capture, which would be the bride’s father escorting the bride to her wedding. (I had taken a few reference photos of the wedding planner standing approximately where I thought the bride and her father would be walking, so that I had an idea of scale when I started the painting.) Continue reading Joan Vienot, Live Event Painter

Posted on 06/11/201704/03/2024 by Joan Vienot — Leave a comment

Faded Glory

Some paintings beg for no words. I painted this painting on the sad day the American president withdrew from the Paris Climate Accord.

Posted on 06/04/201704/03/2024 by Joan Vienot — 2 Comments

Went to a Garden Party, en Plein Air

Sometimes our local group of plein air painters receives an invitation to paint at an event. When that happens, usually 4 or 5 of us will show up, and it is always fun. The garden party today, at Clay30A, was no exception. It was the 5th anniversary for the Seagrove Beach, FL, nursery and gift shop. I meant to arrive an hour early, because the party was only scheduled for 2 hours in the afternoon, and I wanted a head start. Alas, somewhere I lost an hour, so I arrived right after the party started. Several fellow painters were already hard at it. The business is a cornucopia for plein air painting – brilliant light and color and contrasting dark shadows galore. I often bite off more than I can chew when we (the Emerald Coast Plein Air Painters) paint here, so today I purposefully chose a simple subject, pots of flowers hanging from a tree. I correctly guessed that the sun would be starting to hit the flowers by the end of the party at 5:00, which was when I would be ready to paint the light. From when I started at 3:00 until then, I was busy with simple shape making and background colors. At the end, I was pleased with my result, so I gave it to the owner to thank her for inviting our group. To our surprise, she gave each of us a sweet card and gift. I am so grateful to live in such a classy place! Below is my painting. There was one change I made after shooting this photo — I removed the pot hanger I had started to paint in below the lowest hanging pot on the right. I decided that it would be difficult to identify, and that visually it would be less confusing to have the pots just hanging from the tree.

Posted on 06/04/201704/03/2024 by Joan Vienot — 1 Comment

Trying Something Different, en Plein Air

I grow faster as an artist if I occasionally try something new, with a technique, a medium, or a subject I don’t normally use. Last week I posted a work in soft pastels. I’ve painted a couple more since then, for more exposure to the medium. Pastels are an excitingly different medium than the oil paints I normally use.

A month ago, I enjoyed oil painting using only black, white, and gray, to meet the requirements of a call for art by my local arts alliance. I painted en plein air, on a 12″ x 36″ stretched canvas, at Salinas Park near Port St. Joe, Florida, on the road to Cape San Blas. The marsh there is one of my favorite scenes. When I was a mentor for the Forgotten Coast en Plein Air in 2016, as a Florida’s Finest Ambassador, I taught 3 sessions at Salinas Park, but there is a difference between painting as a demonstration, and painting for the sheer pleasure of it. I loved doing this painting using only black, white, and gray. The only times I have painted with this palette of neutrals is in classes, either as a teacher or as a student. I really ought to do it more often, making a completed painting out of a value study, such a beneficial exercise! Unfortunately, the painting was not accepted into my local arts alliance’s exhibit — so I can’t wait to see the art that was accepted! To see a larger view of this painting, CLICK HERE.

The pastel works I completed last week are below. I specifically worked on creating the illusion of distance in all of these paintings, by softening distant edges, reducing detail,and reducing distant intensity and heightening the values. Pastels are pure pigment, and it is a challenge to reduce the intensity when you only have a couple hundred colors. Painters who work regularly in pastels have probably a hundred shades and tints of each color, perhaps a thousand colors in their box. As an oil painter, I am accustomed to mixing my colors. So it was a lot of fun allowing the brilliance of the pure pigment to show.

As always, message me if you are interested in owning any of my artworks.